1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a computing circuit having an instantaneous recognition function and to a method for instantaneous recognition, and more particularly relates to a computing circuit which accepts external data and has a function which conducts the instantaneous recognition of these data.
2. Description of the Related Art
Progress in the field of electronics has been truly astonishing; however, there exists as yet no electronic system having intelligent functions whereby judgements are made with respect to external situations and appropriate actions are taken, as is the case with human beings. Present computer systems are capable of the very rapid execution of four-rule arithmetical calculations; however, real-time response, such as in the case in which an animal such as a frog or the like sees an airborne fly, promptly initiates a response, and instantly captures the prey, or, alternatively, recognizes that an enemy has arrived, and runs away, are completely impossible. The reason for this is that data processing is conducted by means of binary digital calculation on the basis of strict Boolean algebra.
All external data are originally in an analog form, and contain a lot of redundant data. Let us consider, for example, the case in which the airborne fly is captured on the retina as an image, and this is then recognized to be a fly. The fly may be traveling in a number of directions, so that the signal values at the level of the picture elements may have a variety of values. Furthermore, if the movement is rapid, the image may become blurred and the accuracy of the image may worsen. That is to say, the analog signal values at the level of the individual picture elements (the neuroepithelial cells of the retina) are extremely unclear, and may further contain a great deal of noise. Additionally, background data are also included, so that the real world data represent an enormous amount of data in their native form. In present-day digital computer technology, the picture elements are subjected to A/D conversion one by one and are all expressed as digital variables having values of 0 or 1, and processing is conducted by means of sequential computation.
Additionally, if the case of an image sensor having 500.times.500 picture elements is considered, the number of picture elements is 250,000, and since the signals representing the 3 basic colors of red, green, and blue for one picture element are each represented by one byte (8 bits), then the amount of data per screen becomes enormous, being 750,000 bytes. Since such an enormous amount of data is inputted moment by moment, it is impossible to conduct image recognition in real time no matter what kind of supercomputer is employed.
So-called intelligent sensor technology has been developed in which, for example, a small processor is provided for each cell in the two-dimensional array of the image sensor, and high speed processing is realized by means of parallel processing. The calculations involving the elimination of noise, the detection of edges, the emphasis of edges, the detection of orientation, and the like can be executed at high speed using data from picture elements in the vicinity. However, even if such image processing is achieved, the realization of functions such as so-called recognition or decision, in which a determination is made as to what the image is or the appropriate action to take in response to the inputted image, has as yet not been achieved. Techniques exist for conducting recognition using a computer by means of software processing using a knowledge base; however, since the amount of calculation to be executed is enormous, it is impossible to achieve real-time responses even if a large scale supercomputer is employed.
That is to say, in order to provide present-day electronic systems with intelligent functions such as those of human beings, the development of hardware possessing functions such as recognition and judgement is indispensable.